January 2, 2017

Recount found thousands of errors, but no major flaws in state election system

Wisconsin’s first statewide presidential recount found no major problems with the state’s voting system, but it did reveal several errors affecting thousands of ballots that could spur local clerks to tighten procedures, according to a Wisconsin State Journal review of the results.

The recount revealed a yawn-inducing shift in the presidential election results — President-elect Donald Trump extended his lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 131 votes and total votes increased by about 400 out of nearly 3 million cast. Recount proponents had raised concerns about Russia possibly tampering with election results, but the recount found no evidence to support such claims.

However, the small net change in votes obscured that there were thousands of both positive and negative swings in the final totals.

At least 9,039 presidential votes weren’t counted correctly on Election Night, and only were added to the official results because of the recount, the State Journal review found. Another 2,161 votes were originally counted but later tossed out for reasons including to square vote totals with the number of voters who signed the poll book.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/recount-found-thousands-of-errors-but-no-major-flaws-in/article_4ad0fe2a-40d8-5cce-8d84-f3e33469c8f1.html

January 2, 2017

Possible Democratic gubernatorial candidates searching for answers

A handful of Democrats contemplating a run for governor in 2018 are starting to fan out across the state in search of answers to their continued woes at the ballot box.

State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, said a surge of new voters who supported President-elect Donald Trump and a number of Democrats who decided not to vote are key reasons they lost an election that was supposed to form the foundation of a comeback.

“My message to the Dems is that turnout matters,” Vinehout said. “The campaign, the candidate and the message matters.”

Even though Republicans have historically done well in midterm elections when turnout is lower than presidential elections, Democrats believe Gov. Scott Walker will be vulnerable in 2018 if he decides to run for a third term.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/possible-democratic-gubernatorial-candidates-searching-for-answers/article_cc50995d-e839-5a82-aa63-d69021cf57de.html

January 2, 2017

Reveler belly-flops onto Menasha squad car, smashes windshield

A New Year's Eve reveler was arrested after belly-flopping onto a Menasha Police Department squad car at the shortly after midnight Sunday, smashing the vehicle's windshield, police said.

The 25-year-old Kimberly man had been drinking and had already jumped onto a different vehicle near Oak St. and Nicolet Blvd. before police arrived to investigate that incident, according to a post on the Menasha Police Department Facebook page.

Dashcam video shows the man charging toward the stopped squad before leaping onto the windshield.

Two officers were injured while taking the man into custody, one who was treated at a hospital and released, and another who did not seek medical treatment, according to police.

Read more and see video: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2017/01/01/reveler-belly-flops-menasha-squad-car-smashes-windshield/96073650/

January 2, 2017

Milwaukee mental clinic scammed Medicaid, feds say

A Milwaukee clinic turned urine samples into liquid gold, cheating Medicaid out of millions of dollars by billing for duplicative and unnecessary drug screening tests, federal prosecutors say.

In fact, from 2011 to 2015, Acacia Mental Health Clinic LLC, 5228 W. Fond du Lac Ave., captured 99% of all Medicaid payments to mental health and substance abuse counseling providers in Wisconsin, according to a new government lawsuit that aims to claw back some of the money.

The U.S. Attorney's office sued Acacia and its owner, Abe Freund, under the federal False Claims Act, which provides recovery from fraudulent government contractors. The suit says Acacia took advantage of poor, undereducated and vulnerable residents suffering from mental health and substance abuse problems to bilk Medicaid.

The case highlights a local aspect of a national problem that grew alongside the opioid epidemic. At drug abuse treatment centers, operators increasingly turned to questionable urine screens as a revenue source. One of the nation's largest labs, San Diego, Calif.-based Millennium, last year agreed to pay $256 million under the False Claims Act to resolve claims that included drug screen fraud.

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/blogs/proof-and-hearsay/2017/01/02/milwaukee-mental-clinic-scammed-medicaid-feds-say/95967078/

January 2, 2017

Paul Fanlund: Scott Walker is trying 'to govern for everyone'? Please

Paul Fanlund is editor and executive publisher of The Capital Times. A longtime Madisonian, he was a State Journal reporter and editor before becoming a vice president of Madison Newspapers. He joined the Cap Times in 2006.

Years ago, my job at Madison Newspapers included oversight of marketing for the Cap Times, the Wisconsin State Journal and the other smaller brands we owned.

In that role, one lasting lesson was this: To effectively promote a “brand” — whether that brand is a person or thing — your core assertion has to be credible.

For example, if you run Honda, you can tout your cars as dependable or affordable, but you can’t claim to beat the luxury Lexus brand on quality. People just wouldn’t believe you and in turn doubt everything else you had to say.

That old lesson came to mind when I read Gov. Scott Walker’s claim in a year-end interview with Jessie Opoien, political reporter for the Cap Times.

Walker said that his goal is to be governor of all Wisconsinites, not just those who support him. As ludicrous political claims go, that one matches any by Donald Trump, who sets the standard.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/opinion/column/paul_fanlund/paul-fanlund-scott-walker-is-trying-to-govern-for-everyone/article_eeaf0c49-5a1d-54f4-864a-e4a39ddcf25c.html

January 2, 2017

Wisconsin Assembly Democrats hoping to offer a 'more focused message' in upcoming session

Assembly Democrats will have a "more focused message" in the coming legislative session, Minority Leader Peter Barca said Wednesday.

"I think at times as Democrats we tend to have too many messages and priorities get lost to some degree," the Kenosha Democrat told the Cap Times.

Barca was re-elected by his colleagues last month to serve a fourth term as Assembly Democratic leader, despite the party losing seats in the November election. Republicans now hold a 64-35 majority in the Assembly, the largest edge they have had since 1957.

Democrats will continue to introduce legislation and make efforts to demonstrate how things would be different under their leadership, Barca said.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/wisconsin-assembly-democrats-hoping-to-offer-a-more-focused-message/article_3caad02a-bb60-5662-a842-9e1710ba6181.html

January 2, 2017

Lawsuit: Dude ranch owner asked chef for 'black people food'

RENO, Nev. -- Madeleine Pickens wanted the African-American chef she recruited from the country club she owns in Southern California to cook "black people food" - not "white people food" - at her rural Nevada dude ranch and wild horse sanctuary, according to a federal lawsuit accusing her of racial discrimination.

Armand Appling says the wealthy philanthropist and ex-wife of Oklahoma energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens told him fried chicken, BBQ ribs and corn bread would be perfect for the tourists who pay nearly $2,000 a night to stay in plush cottages, ride horses and take Wild West "safaris" on ATVs at her Mustang Monument Wild Horse Eco-Resort.

Appling alleges he was fired 2014 in retaliation for complaining about a hostile work environment. He says Pickens' stereotypical references were commonplace at the Elko County ranch stretching across 900 square miles on the edge of the Ruby Mountains about 50 miles west of the Utah line.

Among other things, he says Pickens, who is white, instructed him to terminate two other black kitchen staffers - one she referred to as her "bull" or "ox" and another who had "too much personality." He says she told him they didn't "look like people we have working at the country club" and didn't "fit the image" of the staff she wanted at the ranch.

Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170102/news/301029984/

Cross-posted in the Nevada Group.

January 2, 2017

Lawsuit: Dude ranch owner asked chef for 'black people food'

RENO, Nev. -- Madeleine Pickens wanted the African-American chef she recruited from the country club she owns in Southern California to cook "black people food" - not "white people food" - at her rural Nevada dude ranch and wild horse sanctuary, according to a federal lawsuit accusing her of racial discrimination.

Armand Appling says the wealthy philanthropist and ex-wife of Oklahoma energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens told him fried chicken, BBQ ribs and corn bread would be perfect for the tourists who pay nearly $2,000 a night to stay in plush cottages, ride horses and take Wild West "safaris" on ATVs at her Mustang Monument Wild Horse Eco-Resort.

Appling alleges he was fired 2014 in retaliation for complaining about a hostile work environment. He says Pickens' stereotypical references were commonplace at the Elko County ranch stretching across 900 square miles on the edge of the Ruby Mountains about 50 miles west of the Utah line.

Among other things, he says Pickens, who is white, instructed him to terminate two other black kitchen staffers - one she referred to as her "bull" or "ox" and another who had "too much personality." He says she told him they didn't "look like people we have working at the country club" and didn't "fit the image" of the staff she wanted at the ranch.

Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170102/news/301029984/

Cross-posted in the African American Group.

January 2, 2017

U.S. Sen. Warren seeks to pull pot shops out of banking limbo

BOSTON — As marijuana shops sprout in states that have legalized the drug, they face a critical stumbling block, a lack of access to the kind of routine banking services other businesses take for granted.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is leading an effort to make sure vendors working with legal marijuana businesses, from chemists who test marijuana for harmful substances to firms that provide security, don’t have their banking services taken away.

It’s part of a wider effort by Warren and others to bring the burgeoning $7 billion marijuana industry in from a fiscal limbo she said forces many shops to rely solely on cash, making them tempting targets for criminals.

After voters in Warren’s home state approved a November ballot question to legalize the recreational use of pot, she joined nine other senators in sending a letter to a key federal regulator, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, calling on it to issue additional guidance to help banks provide services to marijuana shop vendors.

Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/sen-elizabeth-warren-marijuana-businesses-banking-limbo/

January 2, 2017

Crooked pols pension take was $2M; now widow collects

In the 1980s, the FBI enlisted the help of an undercover mole to ensnare crooked Chicago politicians “dumb enough to listen to him,” according to one account.

Among those charged was then-Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Morgan Finley, accused of accepting $25,000 in bribes from the operative so a company could get a leg up on a government contract to collect parking-ticket fines.

Sentencing Finley in 1989 to 10 years in prison for racketeering and attempted extortion, a federal judge told him, “What an honor it was to hold your office, but you made it a monument” to “corruption.”

The lengthy sentence also took into account allegations Finley threatened an FBI agent while the trial was going on.

Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs-crooked-pols-pension-take-was-2m-now-widow-collects/